## Zoho Billing - Product, solutions, integrations, support, and resources Index Access the complete documentation index at: https://www.zoho.com/us/billing/llms.txt Use this file to discover all available documentation pages before proceeding. # Customer Approval For Time Entries Customer Approval allows you to get your time entries verified and approved by the clients you’re working for. This would let the clients know the total number of hours you’ve worked for them. The approved time entries alone can later be invoiced to the client. * * * ### Understand Customer Approvals Let us try to understand Customer Approval with the help of a scenario. **Scenario:** Andy and his team of employees work on a project, for which they are paid based on the number of hours they work. He records the work done by each employee and sends the time entries to his customer for approval. The customer gets to know the exact number of hours spent on each task and the total time spent on finishing the project. Once the time entries are approved by the customer, Andy can invoice the client for the same, thus making the whole process smooth and easy for both the Andy and his client. * * * ### Enable Customer Approvals * Log in to your Zoho Billing organization. * Go to _Settings_ and select _Preferences_. * Go to the _Projects_ tab in the left menu. * Mark the **Enable Customer Approvals for time entries** box. ![Enable Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/enable-approval-preferences.png) If you haven’t enabled projects and timesheets in the customer portal, a pop-up will appear asking you to enable it. * Mark the box **Enable Projects and Timesheet in Customer Portal**, and click **Save and Enable** to let your customers view your customer approvals from the Customer Portal. ![Enable Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/approvals-portal-enable.png) **Insight:** Customer Approvals are only available for customers for whom you've enabled the [customer portal](/us/billing/help/settings/customer-portal/customer-portal.html#enable). * * * ### Create Customer Approvals Once you have enabled Customer Approval, you can view it by going to _Time Tracking_ and selecting _Customer Approvals_. Customer Approvals are available only for projects for which you’ve enabled them. To enable Customer Approval for a project: * Mark the box **Enable Customer Approval for the time entries of this project** when creating a new project or editing an existing project. ![Create Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/customer-approval-entries.png) There are two ways through which you can create customer approvals: #### 1\. From the Customer Approvals Module * Go to the _Time Tracking_ module in the left sidebar. * Select _Customer Approvals_. * Click **\+ New Create Approval** in the top right corner of the page. ![Create Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/customer-approval-button.png) #### 2\. From the Timesheet Module * Go to the _Time Tracking_ module in the left sidebar. * Select **Timesheet**. * Select the time entries that need to be sent for approval. * Click the **Submit for Customer Approval** button on the top. ![Create Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/submit-customer-approval.png) Once you choose any of the above methods, you’ll need to fill in the following details: ![Create Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/customer-approval-form.png) * Choose a customer from the **Customer Name** dropdown. * Provide a name for the approval in the **Name** field. * Select the projects for which you’d like to include time entries from the **Projects** dropdown. * Add a description (if any) for the customer approval in the **Description** field. * Choose a due date in the **Due Date** field if you want your client to approve the time entries before a specific date.  * Select the time entries you wish to send your customer under **Timesheet**. * Click **Save and Submit** to save and submit the approval immediately. Next, click **Submit for Approval** in the following pop-up. * Click **Save** to save and submit it later. **Note**: You cannot include the time entries that have already been invoiced in a customer approval. # Customer Approval Actions The **Customer Approvals** tab lists all your customer approvals which can then be submitted, approved or rejected. In this page… * [Approving Customer Approvals](/us/billing/help/time-tracking/timesheet-approvals/customer-approval.html#approve) * [Rejecting Customer Approvals](/us/billing/help/time-tracking/timesheet-approvals/customer-approval.html#reject) * * * ### Approving Customer Approvals There are three ways by which a Customer Approval can be approved. **1\. From the Customer Portal** * Your clients can view your customer approvals from the **Timesheet** tab in the Customer Portal.  * From here, they can then approve a time entry by clicking the **Approve** button on the top right corner.  ![Approve Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/portal-approve.png) As soon as a time entry is approved, you will get notified within Zoho Billing. **2\. From the Timesheet Module** * Go to the _Timesheet_ module under the _Time Tracking_ tab from the left sidebar. * Select the time entries that need to be approved. * Click _Mark as Approved_ button on the top to approve them. ![Approve Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/approve1.png) **3\. From the Customer Approvals Module** * Go to the _Customer Approvals_ module under the **Time Tracking** tab from the left sidebar. * Select a time entry that you’d like to approve and click the **More** drop down. * Select **Mark as Approved**. ![Approve Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/approve2.png) * Click **Yes** in the following pop-up to approve the time entry. * * * ### Rejecting Customer Approvals Customer Approvals can be rejected in three ways as well. **1\. From the Customer Portal** * Your clients can view your customer approvals from the **Timesheet** tab in the Customer Portal.  * From here, they can then reject a time entry by clicking the **Reject** button on the top right corner. ![Reject Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/portal-reject.png) * Your client will then be asked to enter a reason for rejecting the approval. You will be notified if any of your time entries are rejected along with their reason within Zoho Billing. * You can view a reason for the rejection under the **Comments & History** section from the customer approval page. You can also add or delete your comments from there.  ![Reject Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/rejection-reason.png) Note: You can use this comment section to exchange messages and discuss about time entries with your clients. **2\. From the Timesheet Module** Sometimes, your clients may directly tell you that they don’t approve of an invoice instead of rejecting it from the customer portal. In such cases, you can manually mark invoices as rejected. To do so: * Go to the _Timesheet_ module under the _Time Tracking_ tab from the left sidebar. * Select the time entries that need to be marked as rejected. * Click the **More** dropdown and select **Mark as Rejected**. ![Reject Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/reject1.png) **3\. From the Customer Approvals Module** * Go to the _Customer Approvals_ module under the **Time Tracking** tab from the left sidebar. * Select the time entry that needs to be marked as rejected. * Click the **More** dropdown and select **Mark as Rejected**. ![Reject Customer Approval](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/reject2.png) Note: Only submitted customer approvals can be marked as rejected. # Other Actions for Customer Approval Let us take a look at some of the actions that can be performed in Customer Approvals. In this page… * [Edit, Print, Download and Delete Customer Approvals](/us/billing/help/time-tracking/timesheet-approvals/customer-approval.html#other-actions) * [Customer Approval Filters](/us/billing/help/time-tracking/timesheet-approvals/customer-approval.html#status-filters) * [Disable Customer Approval](/us/billing/help/time-tracking/timesheet-approvals/customer-approval.html#disable) * * * ### Edit, Print, Download and Delete Customer Approvals Here are the list of actions that can be performed upon a customer approval: * **Print** - Click the **Print** icon to print your customer approvals. * **PDF** - To download your customer approvals as PDFs, click the **PDF** icon.  * **Edit** - To edit your customer approvals, click the **Edit** icon on the top right corner. * **Delete** - To completely delete your customer approval, click the **More** dropdown and select **Delete**. ![Other Actions in Customer Approvals](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/approvals-actions.png) * * * ### Customer Approval Filters We have a set of filters based on which you can filter your customer approvals and list them. Customer Approvals can be listed based on their status and the customer names. The status can be chosen from the **Status** dropdown and the customer name can be chosen from **Select Customer** dropdown. The following are the status filters that are available in Zoho Billing for Customer Approvals: * All  * Approved * Rejected * Pending Submission * Pending Approval * Approval Overdue ![Other Actions in Customer Approvals](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/status-filters.png) These filters can also be used by your clients from the Customer Portal. * * * ### Disable Customer Approval **Prerequisite**: To disable the Customer Approvals feature for your organization, you will have to disable Customer Approvals for every individual project for which you have enabled customer approvals. To do so: * Unmark the **Enable Customer Approval for the time entries of this project** box by editing an existing project. Next, to disable Customer Approvals for your organization: * Click the _Settings_ and select _Preferences_. * Go to _Projects_ in the left menu. * Unmark the box **Enable Customer Approvals for time entries**. * Click **Save**. ![Other Actions in Customer Approvals](/billing/images/help/images/timesheet-approvals/disable-approvals.png) Was this document helpful? ![](/billing/images/ue-resources/common/thumbs.svg) Yes ![](/billing/images/ue-resources/common/thumbs.svg) No Was this document helpful? Enter your comments or feedback on this page Enter your email address ![](#) Refresh Type the characters you see in the image above By clicking Submit, you agree to our [Privacy Policy](https://www.zoho.com/privacy.html) . Submit Cancel Submit Submit ![](/billing/images/ue-resources/common/smiley.svg) Thank you for your feedback!